03 Tuesday Jun 2025
So two big time wine events in less than a week. First up was Vinos de España Una Pasión last Thursday in Málaga and then this week’s final of the Copa Jerez in Jerez de la Frontera. Both offered a chance to meet up with old friends and make some new ones. And enjoy some fabulous wines! More on each trip a bit later. Just to say how much I love being a part of this community, feeling a part of it, being accepted. Love it so much.
28 Tuesday May 2024
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Penultimate evening in Jerez and we were a bit of a loss about what to do because, frankly, after two full-on days at Vinoble we were shattered. Then I remembered that Mary and I had been trying to find a time to meet up so, on the chance that she might be up for a last minute invite for cava in the María Luisa Hotel gardens I got in touch and she popped right over. Well kind of. First she went to our previous hotel because she hadn’t realised we’d changed (and I stupidly hadn’t reminded her) and then she made her way back to our hotel that is actually two minutes from her house (!!!). What a mess. Anyhow… it all worked out in the end. Phew.
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27 Monday May 2024
16 Monday Oct 2023
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Eight years ago today I became a Certified Sherry Educator. Since then I have been spreading the sherry gospel far and wide via my Sherry & Tapas Tours and Sherry Tastings and, well, basically anytime anyone wants to listen (and taste). So even on my tapas tours that aren’t specifically focused on sherry, somehow I always manage to slip in a glass or two and some background info. Because while almost everyone has heard of sherry, very few actually know much about it.
It’s been a long and delicious journey since first falling down the “sherry rabbit hole” one day in May 2013 when I asked Rafa, my favourite barman at Las Teresas, for a sherry to pair with my tapa and he hauled out a bottle of VORS Palo Cortado by Bodegas Tradición from behind the bar and said… “have you tried this???”… and then my life changed. Because I had no idea that sherry could be THAT and from that moment on I vowed to find out more about this amazing wine.
That summer I went to the three towns in the Triangle (Jerez, Sanlúcar de Barrameda, El Puerto de Santa María) and visited as many bodegas as I could, I lost count after fifteen. And omg, the welcome I received was amazing. When I got in touch and said I wanted to expand my Sevilla Tapas Tours to include a Sherry & Tapas Tour people were so generous and helpful. I found myself invited on private tours with the owners of small boutique wineries as well as being given the VIP treatment at the larger producers.
Because this is the thing. The sherry community is like a family and I think remains so even these days, even after last year’s expansion of the “Triangle” to include six more sherry making towns. What still exists is the passion and pride in what they are producing, sometimes going back many generations. And even now, with the expansion and with younger producers coming up with their own take on what sherry used to be, and introducing still wines from the same grapes that are totally terroir driven. It’s really an exciting time right now and I can’t wait to see what is going to happen next.
22 Friday Sep 2023
My friend Anne is one of the most thoughtful gift givers I know. Not only because she thinks about giving people gifts (which she loves to do) but she also thinks it through and somehow, at least with me, always gets it right. And trust me, I’m not the easiest person to give things to, simply because I think my tastes are difficult to pinpoint. So normally when someone surprises me with a gift I wince a bit inwardly knowing that I’ll smile and say it’s lovely (and I’ll mean it because the thought is always lovely) while also knowing I will never use, wear, read whatever it is.
But not with Anne. So when she surprised me with this fabulous book last week at the Lustau Cata Magistral I had a look, saw it was signed by both the author and illustrator, and thanked her so much, knowing I was going to love it even though I didn’t really know what I was looking at.
Later when I got home I had a better look at this beautiful love letter to Jerez. Journalist María José Solano and artist Miki Leal bring Jerez to life on these delightful pages and I can’t wait to read it.
Thanks again, Anne! Though I’m still a bit miffed you got me hooked on those azahar oil stick diffusers a few years ago THAT ARE NOW DISCONTINUED. 😘
casa azahar 